twi-ny recommended events

A VERY JEWISH CHRISTMAS

Jessica Kirson will headline Jewish Christmas show at Gotham Comedy Club on Christmas Eve

Gotham Comedy Club
208 West 23rd St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
Friday, December 24, $25 (plus two-drink minimum), 7:30 & 9:30
212-367-9000
www.gothamcomedyclub.com

While the goyim are celebrating Christmas Eve at home with their families, Jews hit the town, taking advantage of bars, restaurants, movie theaters, and other venues that are a lot easier to get into than usual. Among the special events planned for that night is “A Very Jewish Christmas,” as a roster of Jewish comedians join together at the Gotham Comedy Club. The lineup features headliner Jessica Kirson along with Barry Weintraub, Lenny Marcus, and Gregg Rogell.

JONATHAN LETHEM & JOHN HODGMAN: THEY LIVE

Jonathan Lethem and John Hodgman will discuss John Carpenter cult classic at IFC Center

IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at Third St.
Tuesday, December 21, 8:00
www.ifccenter.com

John Carpenter’s 1988 sci-fi horror comedy, THEY LIVE, puts on sunglasses to reveal corporations’ and government’s subliminal control of the populace, then brings in wrestling star Rowdy Roddy Piper (HELL COMES TO FROGTOWN) as John Nada to try to save the day from a growing force of aliens. The cult classic, which also stars Keith David (THE THING), who gets into one of the great all-time movie fights with Piper, takes on social consciousness and public responsibility; “Homelessness and poverty aren’t just happening to one kind of person these days,” Carpenter (ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, HALLOWEEN, ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13) said when the film was released. THEY LIVE is being screened December 21 at the IFC Center in conjunction with the publication of Jonathan Lethem’s (MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN, THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE) monograph on the film, DEEP FOCUS: THEY LIVE (Soft Skull, November 2010, $13.95). “THEY LIVE,” Lethem writes in the book, “lends itself to obsession. Howlingly blatant and obvious on many levels — some might ask, How many levels do you really think there are? — it grows marvelously slippery and paradoxical at its depths.” Lethem will be on hand to discuss the depths of the film with DAILY SHOW correspondent and fellow author John Hodgman (THE AREAS OF MY EXPERTISE, MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU REQUIRE) in what promises to be a rather unique event.

THE HOLIDAY TRAIN SHOW 2010

The Holiday Train Show at the New York Botanical Garden includes Hellgate Bridge and other thoroughfares (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

New York Botanical Garden
Bronx River Pkwy at Fordham Rd.
Through January 9 (closed Monday)
Timed tickets: $10-$15 children two to twelve, $20-$25 adults
718-817-8700

2009 flickr slideshow
www.appliedimagination.biz
www.nybg.org

Back for its nineteenth year, the Holiday Train Show at the New York Botanical Garden is a spectacular display that must be seen to be believed. Designed by Paul Busse and Applied Imagination, the show spreads through much of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, with the trains gliding past classic New York City architecture both current and no longer standing, including such familiar sites as the Flatiron Building, Rockefeller Center, the Statue of Liberty, Grand Central Terminal, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, City Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Radio City Music Hall, the UN, Yankee Stadium, the original Pennsylvania Station, and the Apollo as well as Roosevelt Island, Kykuit, the Bartow-Pell Mansion, the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum, the Jewish Museum, Lefferts Historic House, the JFK TWA Flight Center (new for 2010), and some 125 or so more. (The structures aren’t built to scale or arranged geographically, so the sticklers among you might be a little annoyed, but just let it ride.) Trains also cross the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg, George Washington, and Hell Gate Bridges overhead while also disappearing into tunnels and behind trees and plants. The bridges and buildings are constructed using natural, organic materials, from pomegranate and honey locust thorn and black cherry wood to eucalyptus pods and hemlock cones, from honeysuckle twigs and tree sap to shelf fungus, reeds, casting resin, and beechnut husks. (Be sure to get up close to see all of the intricate design work, and pay special attention to the Guggenheim.)

Trains pass by classic New York landmarks at botanical garden show (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Timed tickets also include admission to Gingerbread Adventures in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden and the “Tootle the Train” show in the Arthur and Janet Ross Lecture Hall; we highly suggest you schedule your visit to the NYBG — which is ridiculously easy to get to, just twenty minutes on Metro-North, with the stop right across the street from the entrance — during one of those two shows, as the conservatory will thin out just a bit, but when they let out, watch out for the crowds.

GRAND CENTRAL HOLIDAY TRAIN SHOW 2010

The Holiday Train Show has pulled back into Grand Central Terminal (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

New York Transit Museum Gallery Annex
Grand Central Terminal
Shuttle Passage next to the Station Masters’ Office
Through January 15
Monday through Friday, 8:00 am — 8:00 pm; Saturday and Sunday, 10:00 am — 6:00 pm
Admission: free
212-878-0106
www.mta.info
www.grandcentralterminal.com

The Transit Museum’s ninth annual holiday train show in Grand Central is, as always, a sheer delight. Created by Lionel and TW Design, the display features such city monuments as the Empire State Building (complete with King Kong), Philip Johnson’s AT&T/Sony building, and Grand Central itself, surrounded by a gaggle of little shops. The streets around the buildings and the lighted Christmas tree are filled with shoppers, cabs, policemen, buses, and commuters, all preparing for the holiday season. There’s also some cool track work going on, as well as a special dockside delivery. At the back of the display, Santa and his reindeer fly over a snow-covered mountain as the North Pole Central roars on. Finally, along the walls, the museum has reached into its permanent collection, pulling out such gems as the 1928 Pocahontas, the 1938 Broadway Limited, the 1954 Emperor Chief, the 1975 Hiawatha, the 1927 American Legion Limited, the 1927 Lone Scout, and the 1936 Blue Comet. Part of the fun of the Holiday Train Show is that it turns everyone, no matter what age, into a little kid again, their eyes wide with joy. And while in Grand Central, be sure to stop by the Grand Central Holiday Fair, which continues through December 24.

CLEMENT C. MOORE PARK

People gather every Christmas Eve in Clement C. Moore Park to read his holiday classic, “The Night Before Christmas” (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Sunday, December 19, Church of the Intercession, 550 West 155th St. at Broadway, free, 4:00
Friday, December 24, Clement C. Moore Park, West 22nd St. at Tenth Ave., free
www.nycgovparks.org
www.audubonparkperspectives.com

On Christmas Eve, 1822, Clement Clarke Moore wrote the holiday poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” for his wife and children, who lived on an estate called Chelsea in the neighborhood that later became the Chelsea of today. A native New Yorker, Moore (1779–1863) has two city parks named after him, the half-acre Clement C. Moore Park on Tenth Ave. & 22nd St. and the Clement Clarke Moore Homestead in Newtown, Queens. Every Christmas Eve, people gather at the Chelsea park to read Moore’s famous story, which is better known as “The Night Before Christmas,” right near where it was written. Although Moore is most closely associated with Christmas, he also compiled a Hebrew lexicon and was fluent in six languages. The Moore mansion itself was located at what is now a doctor’s office at 420 West 23rd St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves. Moore is buried in Trinity Cemetery in Audubon Park, where, on Sunday, December 19, actor Malik Yoba will read Moore’s most famous poem in the Church of the Intercession, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the public reading, which will be followed by a lantern-lit procession and wreath-laying ceremony. “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.”

SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER & UNCUT SING-ALONG

Satan and Saddam Hussein are all part of the fun in SOUTH PARK sing-along

SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER & UNCUT (Trey Parker, 1999)
92YTribeca
200 Hudson St. at Canal St.
Saturday, December 18, $13 (includes one beer), 10:30 pm
212-415-5500
www.92YTribeca.org/film

Now this is our kind of sing-along. While others gather to celebrate THE SOUND OF MUSIC, MAMMA MIA, and WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, singing classic, familiar, popular hits, we’d much rather be blasting out such memorable songs as the Oscar-nominated “Blame Canada,” “Uncle Fucka,” “Kyle’s Mom’s a Bitch,” and “What Would Brian Boitano Do?” Since 1997, Matt Stone and Trey Parker have been using colorful low-tech cutouts to show that there are no sacred cows, lambasting celebrities, politicians, religion, sexuality, the military, education, television, movies, corporations, pop culture, and just about everything else they can think of in the animated series South Park, which follows the travails of a group of eight-year-old boys in a small town in Colorado. In 1999, Eric Cartman, Kyle Broflovski, Stan Marsh, and Kenny McCormick got to star in their own feature-length animated film, SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER & UNCUT, in which they lead the resistance to save Terrance & Phillip while Kyle’s mom starts a war with Canada. They’re joined by such SP regulars as Chef, Mr. Mackey, Mr. Garrison, and Wendy Testeberger and such special guests as Satan, Saddam Hussein, and the mysterious Gregory, along with guest voicers George Clooney, Eric Idle, Minnie Driver, Dave Foley, and Brent Spiner. The musical numbers, written by Parker with Henry Mancini Award winner Marc Shaiman (HAIRSPRAY), are a riot, including “I’m Super” from the irrepressible Big Gay Al, which boasts the fabulous lyrics “Bombs are flying / People are dying / Children are crying / Politicians are lying too // Cancer is killing / Texaco’s spilling / The whole world’s gone to hell // But how are you? / I’m super / Thanks for asking!” Tickets are $13 and come with one beer, props, a trivia contest, and other goodies.

YOSHITOMO NARA: NOBODY’S FOOL

“Nobody’s Fool” offers a look into childhood memories and loneliness (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Asia Society
725 Park Ave. at 70th St.
Tuesday – Sunday through January 2
Admission: $5-$10 (free Friday nights from 6:00 to 9:00)
212-288-6400
www.asiasociety.org

The many obsessions of fifty-one-year-old Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara are on view at the Asia Society in “Nobody’s Fool,” a wide-ranging exhibition of paintings, sculptures, drawings, ceramics, and site-specific installations. Divided into three primary themes — Isolation, Rebellion, and Music — the works create a fascinating portrait of Nara and his unique take on popular culture. Nara’s most familiar subjects — houses, animals, rock and roll, and little girls who are not quite as cute as they initially appear — relate to his own loneliness growing up and his desire to break free. Evil and danger lurk just below the surface of his pieces, if not in plain sight. In the painting “Make the Road, Follow the Road,” a pig-tailed girl hands a knife to a smiling doglike creature, while on the plate “Too Young to Die” a young girl smoking a cigarette directs a sly, knowing look at the viewer. And in the drawing “Stuffed Dog,” a canine wearing a crown has been thumbtacked to the wall, echoing the crucifixion by way of a direct reference to Nara’s own art, as if his freedom has been taken away from him, accompanied by the words “No Pain No Again.” Nara often uses written language in his works, with his characters making such declarations as “Oh! My God! I Miss You!” and “Pave Your Dreams.” Heavily influenced by American rock and punk, especially the Ramones, he incorporates such phrases as “It’s better to burn out than to fade away” and “Stand by me” in his pieces; In “Guitar Wolf,” the title animal is blasting away on a six-string, shouting out, “Fuckin’ neurotic world!” while in an untitled piece, a young girl with a guitar is standing atop a mountain with a face while singing, “Kill kill kill the P.” Nara has also set up a wall display of dozens of his favorite album covers, appreciated for their jacket art and/or music, including some very interesting and surprising choices.

Yoshitomo Nara opens up the doors to his psyche in site-specific installations at Asia Society (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

“Nobody’s Fool” also features three site-specific installations organized around the theme of home and developed by Nara in tandem with designer Hideki Toyoshima. “Drawing Room Between the Concord and Merrimack” creates a carnivalesque atmosphere with color-wheel stages you can stand on and a small house that represents Nara’s studio. “Doors,” named after the rock band and part of a bigger project from 2006 held in Nara’s hometown, consists of five rooms, each with a very different scene inside and including such works as “It’s Something Unpredictable But in the End Is Right” and “Promise Me No Dead End Streets,” inspired by Green Day. And in “Untitled (formerly ‘Home’),” Nara invites visitors to walk through a one-story house he and Toyoshima constructed earlier this year in the Park Ave. Armory and filled with a video montage of photographs, a peace sign stuffed with handmade dolls, and a maquette of “White Ghost,” a miniature of the large sculptures that stood on Park Ave. announcing and protecting the exhibit. The installations offer trips deeper into Nara’s fascinating psyche and working method, built on childhood memories and rock and roll dreams. On Sunday, December 19, Asia Society will be hosting “My House Is My Home,” a workshop for families at 3:00 in which they’ll take a closer look at Nara’s special installations. And as a special bonus, if you check in with Asia Society on Foursquare, you’ll get two-for-one admission. (Admission is free on Friday nights from 6:00 to 9:00.)